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tv   Mad Money  CNBC  October 4, 2012 11:00pm-12:00am EDT

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onth for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. i'm jim cramer, and welcome to my world. >> you need to get in the game! >> firms are going to go out of business and he's nuts! they're nuts! they know nothing. i always like to say there is a bull market somewhere. "mad money," you can't afford to miss it. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. my job is not just to entertain you but to teach you. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. hey, there's tons of ways to watch a presidential debate. you can root for a candidate. [ applause ] you can measure whom you might want to vote for. or you can play a drinking game, whatever floats your boat. on a day when many stocks were
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buoyed by mitt romney's victory over president obama, let me tell you how i watched. i watched the debate within the parlance of my world, the stock world. i watched it with an eye towards making you some money. tweeting every potential stock idea triggered by either gentleman. ♪ how can you try to make money from the debate? let me parse it for you. show you how it's done. going over the actual statements by each candidate translating them into cramerican. let me tell you, there were tons of cramericans on twitter. if you tweeted me about the debate, keep an eye on the twicker running below. you may see your tweet. romney went right into a call for north american energy
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self-sufficiently, singling out coal as an endangered species under obama. listen. >> i like coal. i want to make sure we can continue to burn clean coal. people in the coal industry feel like it's getting crushed by your policies. >> lots of bozos went in and bought the coal stocks. all the coal stocks on. this wrong take away, people! coal's hostage to chinese demand more than u.s. use. that's not the case for the users of coal. the users, people. and that's why i said romney's giving you a heads up to buy american electric power and southern company, two coal building utilities that have to spend far less retrofitting facilities under romney staffed epa. i would be a seller of the consol energies and the peabodies in the strength. i take down union pacific. it is the carrier of clean coal. i would never recommend a
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company on this show with bad fundamentals. but they can be justified even with this sitting president. the pure coal plays are faltering fundamentally. there is no way i'm going to buy them based on some off handed debate patter. you want a battleground stock that could go either way depending upon the election? consider this first statement by the president about corporate jets. >> why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets? my attitude is if you got a corporate jet, can you probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it. >> now watch romney on defense. >> finally, military. the president's re-elected, you'll see dramatic cuts to our military. the secretary of defense said these would be even devastating. i will not cut our commitment to our military. >> if you're like me, you realize the general dynamics is at the fulcrum of both of these issues.
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if president obama is going back to that 2009 rhetoric, orders for gulf stream jets could be hammered. when you think of big defense programs that could be boosted by a romney presidency, go no further than general dynamics. you can see a real hit to earnings if the budget cuts become a reality. romney is unintentionally green lighting lockheed martin and grumman. now about half way into the debate romney gave us a fabulous short idea with this clip. >> you put $90 billion, like 50 years worth of breaks into solar and wind to solyndra and tesla and i had a friend who said you don't just pick winners and losers, you pick the losers. >> tesla relies on the kindness of the government. that kindness will be over if the white house gets a new occupant. i suggest immediately buying tesla in november. 25s look juicy.
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both candidates had a lot to say about oil. here's obama. >> the oil industry gets $4 billion a year in corporate welfare. now does anybody think that exxonmobil needs some extra money when they're making money every time you go to the pump? >> you think that exxon would have gotten hit today, right? it rallied 52 cents. some can argue that is because the market senses a romney victory. no way. exxon is just bigger than any president. here is romney on oil. >> your administration cut the number of permits and licenses in half. if i'm president, i'll double them. >> we aren't going to make money buying federal lands. but if more were opened, it would be a bonanza for the oil service industry. don't outthink this, people. schlumberger and national oil well varco will get the most number of profits from expanded federal land drilling.
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obama has never a fan of the banks. you don't want to overweight the group on his re-election. listen to this confused clip from romney. >> we have to have regulation in wall street. that's why i'd have regulation. but i wouldn't designate five banks as too big to fail and give them a blank check. >> that's what i call a head scratcher. speaking of unintended consequences, the big five are all up huge today. romney seemed angry that obama coddled them. he talked about how dodd/frank imperiled community banks. all banks went up today on a prospective romney swing and lighter regulatory scheme, i wouldn't chance it with the internationals. instead i'd stick with wells fargo viewed as domestic bank or go with really the true community banks, huntington bank, u.s. bancorp or key. take a romney kicker any day of the week. throughout the night romney repeatedly claimed he was the
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real friend of small business. even as we know saying something bad about small business has become the new third rail of american politics. this comment is typical. >> there was a survey done of small businesses across the country. said what's been the effect of obama care on your hiring plans? and three quarters of them said it makes us less likely to hire people. >> all right. let's take him at face value for a moment. small business truly gets a boost if you elect romney, you need some paychex. the company's growth is in the hands of small business expansion. obama bears take note. you might be tempted to short paychex on the democratic victory. but remember, you have to pay that bountiful dividend if you short the stock. along the same lines, romney claimed that obama's policies are causing an increase in the use of food stamps. >> the proof of that is one out of six people in poverty. the proof of that is we've gone from 32 million on food stamps to 47 million on food stamps. >> again, if you take romney at his word, you better dump family
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dollar and dollar general tomorrow. they have expanded aggressively into food to capture that gigantic increase of food stamp dollars. they've been using new freezer cases to bring food in. that's what was behind the breakout we saw the other day from family dollar's magnificent quarter. that big increase in the number of food stamp users might go away. much was made of this comment by romney -- >> i like pbs. i love big bird. i actually like you, too. >> all right. i'll make this point. stay away from the whole toy merchandise cohort. when he bad back to school numbers. no money to be made here whatsoever. finally, we got the toughest call of all, the health care gambit. a lot of mistaking people scooped up all of the drug and health maintenance stocks today because of romney's perceived victory and the concomitant belief that if obama care goes
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right out the window when day one of the new presidency, it's good for big pharma and for health maintenance organizations. to which i say sorry. that is very wrong. in truth, big pharma and the hmos have been gigantic winners off obama care. they made their peace with it. they profited from it. some would say they co-opted it. that's why i warned on twitter not to get too caught up in the benefits of a possible obama care repeal. it may not be as bountiful as you wish them to be. you may have to sell the stocks that people bought today. obama care is so fabulous for big pharma and health care. sorry. finally, i tweeted one last epiphany at the conclusion. under no circumstances regardless who wins should you buy hewlett-packard. the bottom line on the debate, you can speculate on romney win after last night and adjust your portfolio accordingly. if you buy stocks with declining fundamentals simply because you think they'll get a boost from
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romney or obama, you're taking on an unacceptable level of risk. buy good stocks cheaply. avoid expensive ones, good or bad, and you'll do well under either candidate. james in pennsylvania. james? >> hey, jim. first i'd like to thank you for the help that you give all the small investors and give us a little bit of an edge. and my question is kraft. i owned a certain number of kraft shares. i was under the impression that it was going to be three to one and you would get lesser of the lease. it turned to be the opposite. i wonder where you stand and should i get rid of mondolise and buy back kraft? they priced out about the same. >> the confusion involving this was monumental. the exchange got it wrong. kraft didn't handle it well. we like mdlz, when i say we, stephanie link and i.
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we also got some kraft. we can do a full piece next week explaining the differences and what you should do. so if you want to wait for next week, we'll give you more on that. let's go to cioffi in new jersey. >> cramer, what's up? i'm calling you from new jersey. this is the only book in my library today. i'm calling you about a little one. vrng. i'm ready to take this one right to the moon. all i need is your blessing and some high octane fuel to get it there. what do you think, jimmy? >> i'm going to let you down. i looked at this last night. $250 million market cap. i said maybe i'd do something on it. you know what? it's too small. i don't want to mess with it. i hate to ever let one of our viewers down. but i'm not going to opine on this little company because, frankly, it is a battle royal that is too small for me to opine on. here on "mad money" we watch everything through the
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cramerican lens, including the debates. with good stocks they always win. "mad money" will be right back. >> coming up -- >> energy. >> energy. >> energy. >> questions about how our country will fuel its future took center stage last night. but how could you cash in on the push for energy independence? cramer is looking for profits in the pipeline when he talks with the ceo of enbridge next. and later, crossfire. there's a shootout on the street over the future of one big name in defense. cramer's going in the trenches and forming a battle plan. stick around. this could be your portfolio's new secret weapon. plus, on "good behavior." cramer's sell block can be an unforgiving place. but after doing time, stocks can emerge reformed. tonight, one tech security play has paid its debt to society. but is it now a buy? the verdict is just ahead.
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on a day when the price of oil spiked more than $3, fears in the middle east, that's not going to go away. let me remind you we don't have to be dependent on opec for our energy needs in this continent. in recent years we found a tremendous amount of oil and gas here in north america, places like the bakken shale and eagleford shale in texas. in fact, we have so much oil in these places that we don't have nearly enough pipeline infrastructure to transport the stuff to where it is needed from point a to point b. so they're using trains and trucks to do the shipping. i've been a fan of the pipeline stocks on this show, as you know. sources of great income because they're like toll roads.
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they pay bountiful dividends. the pipeline business is, i think, maybe a multiple year growth industry. if you want a growth oriented pipeline play, look no further than enbridge, enb. the big canadian company, one that carries 70% of all canada's oil exports in the united states. it has more than $30 billion worth of secured and potential projects on the drawing board. not to mention creation of tens of thousands of jobs, maybe even more. something that governor romney suggested last night could happen if we simply unleash the power of the energy industry and the infrastructure demands. they yield 2.8%, they have potential to boost it 11% to 15% annually. they have already given you a 30% return since we spoke to the former ceo a little more than a year ago. for some bizarre reason there were many doubters about the stock, not this guy. we want to know if the stock has more room to run.
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let's talk to al monico who just this week took out over as enbridge's ceo. welcome to "mad money." >> nice to be here. >> please sit down. thank you for coming on our show. i know you just took over. this is a great opportunity. >> glad to be here. >> you're kind of the man of the hour, frankly. governor romney starts the debate basically talking about energy and saying how many jobs could be created. if anyone's going to be creating them, it's going to be your company. you're the dominant mover of oil. i'd like to show you a little clip of what governor romney is saying. we'll do some fact checking here. >> my plan has five basic parts. one, get us energy independent, north american energy independent. that creates four million jobs. all right. four million jobs. that's a lot of jobs. that would create a lot of employment. possible? >> absolutely possible. absolutely. and the reason for that is because we're going to see unprecedented growth in crude oil supply in north america and
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particularly in the united states. and the issue today is we don't have good connectivity of that supply to markets. so that means we need a lot of new energy infrastructure. we're in the middle of that transformation. so the jobs will come. >> but there was a moment in your unbelievable presentation, page five of it, it says -- >> you read it? >> i didn't go to college to get stupid. the problem is this need comes at a time when we're seeing significant opposition to every kind of energy development. now is that a presidential thing or just the culture? >> that's the reality of the world today and our business. but we do have to work through that, jim. we will. i think people want to see sustainability in energy projects. in other words, they want to see it done right. i think that's fine. we have to work through those issues and we will. >> okay. now you want to go there. today -- yesterday in the epa contacted you about the kalamazoo spill you had 843,000 gallons.
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they said you maybe have to do more work. so you also have to balance the fact that pipelines do burst at times. >> absolutely. and it's something that obviously we try and avoid. in fact, our target is to have zero leaks or zero spills. we received that notice yesterday from the epa. we're just looking at it now. you know, we're going to cooperate as we always have with the epa. and we'll work to do whatever work is necessary for the final work on that project. >> is there a feeling among the people at enbridge, a lot of people spoke at the analyst meeting, if you had a different president, the epa would be more willing to work with you and not against you? >> i don't think so, jim. >> really? >> the reality is both administrations, at least in my view, would have a strong need to -- and desire to encourage more energy independence in the united states and north america. so, frankly, i think we can work with either administration very well. >> all right. now let's go into the growth prospect. >> sure.
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>> people always thought of enbridge as an income play. i feel with all these different finds, it is a multiple year growth play. you unveiled some numbers that if you get money to be able to secure the huge number of projects you have, you could be up to 12% compounded annual growth which is higher than every tech company i deal with. >> exactly. let me go into that just for a moment. basically what we're saying is we have $18 billion of firmly secured projects. and that means we have commercial underpinning. those are going forward. and with that alone, we'll be able to increase earnings per share. we expect over the next five years by 10% per year annually. now, we have another category of highly probable projects. if we add those to the mix which we have a good likelihood that we will, then certainly we'll be above 12%. >> if you have a five-year plan, how many people do you have to hire? if you have all of the
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unsecured and the secured, what do you have to have? >> internally we have 2500 people so far this year. now that's going to mean an additional 1,000 individuals to build the pipelines and facilities we contract out. so there will be a lot more labor required in the years to come. >> okay. one last question. there's this bizarre thing and you detail it so perfectly. there is a $27 discount between oil from hardesty, canada to the gulf. now we have never seen west texas. we spoke after you did that project, we were supposed to have $112 brent and west texas, they were supposed to go away. what is with the differentials? >> we don't have enough connectivity yet. seaway was a good start. we're at 150,000 barrels per day. over time that differential will collapse as we bring on more pipeline capacity which is what we're doing now.
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>> and will it matter if we have eagle ford, bakken, let's say utica turns out big. this is more of the bonanza that we're looking for? >> that's a great point. the reason is because the renaissance here is actually in light oil volumes. and those light oil volumes need to get to market. so for our part what we're trying to do is move the volumes to the eastern markets, just east of chicago, certainly ultimately to the u.s. gulf coast on the eastern gulf. so that will help to address the price discounting that we see on the light oil side. >> who is going to help california? costco today said they can't get enough refined product. we have no pipe out there, do we? >> the likelihood of getting pipes in california is very low. >> separate country. all right. president and ceo of enbridge. you want to learn? you want to really understand this industry? they gave you a full day presentation and it is brilliant. thank you al monaco. great to see you, sir. >> thank you. >> i like this stock.
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coming up, crossfire. there's a shootout on the street over the future of one big name in defense. cramer is going in the trenches and forming a battle plan. stick around. this could be your portfolio's new secret weapon. and later on good behavior. cramer's sell block can be an unforgiving place, but after doing time but stocks can emerge reformed. tonight, one tech security play has paid its debt to society. but is it now a buy? the verdict is just ahead. all coming up on "mad money."
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when two analysts say different things about the same stock on the same day, we don't have a debate like the candidates did. we have ourselves a good old fashioned shootout. a metaphorical duel to the death until only one man is left standing. and in this instance you might say that's ironic. the stock that's the cause of this wall street gun fight is alliant tech systems. the largest maker of bullets on earth. the ultimate dealers in lead.
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to borrow a phrase from "the magnificent seven," alliant has very little competition. so what happened here? monday morning jeffries downgraded them from buy to hold. and then lowered the price target for the $51 stock to $65. then a half hour later, alliant is rewarded a major contract deal. they can run the small caliber ammunition plant, largest in the world. it's a big deal. it's something that jeffries expected when they downgraded the stock. however, the analysts that cover the stock for cowen thought this was a game changer because they quickly upgraded the stock to outperform an hour after the contract win. all this before the open on monday morning. so who is right? let's start with the obvious caveats. alliant tech is a major federal contractor with huge exposure to the defense budget, so if we fall off the fiscal cliff, that
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won't be good for the business. of course, as a maker of ammunition, a big part of the business is in decline as the war effort in afghanistan winds down. but as cowen points out, this stock has lagged the large cap defense names by an astounding 23% year to date. it's now 12 points off its high. none of the others look like that. it trades at 7.6 times next year's earnings estimates. it seems like all the major defense and budget related worries are, yes, baked into the stock. if anything, they think alliant tech has room to play catchup now that big lake city contract that is behind them. they think that atk can outperform by 20% over the next three to six months without much in the way of down side risk because the stock is so cheap. they believe that worries about the lake city contract were keeping the stock down. that's a big part of the business. the deal can be worth $2 billion over the next ten years. if they lost the contract, it wouldn't have been a huge hit to atk's earnings. the company doesn't have any
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other major contracts expiring in the near future where it has to compete for business. investors have much less to worry about. confidence, now the big risk, it's off the table. we can now focus on atk's monster buy back, 175 million repurchase authorization. plus, if obama gets re-elected, they expect the civilian side to get a major boost as regular people, yes, stockpile ammo. not making it up. talk to cabela's. what happens if the election in 2008, on the other hand if, romney wins, he wants to increase spending. given all the factors, i can see why cowen believes that atk can outperform by 20%. you make a pretty compelling case that the stock is ready to play catchup. what about the downgrade? on one hand, jeffries had the bad luck of coming out with this research right before the army re-upped that contract. so timing, that could have been better. however, the jeffries downgrade wasn't all about alliant's ammo business.
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they have an aerospace division. and they make spacecraft components for nasa and small satellites. it's this side of the business that jeffries is truly worried about. the research reports feel like two duelists shooting it out. but right past each other, jeffries rated alliant a buy based on catalysts related to that space launch system i mentioned. the catalysts have come and gone and didn't play out as jeffries expected. plus, jeffries is concerned about the nasa budget going forward. in other words, the thesis didn't play out the way they hoped. so they're being disciplined and backing away from the wreck. that's what good investment is about. however, after we learned about atk's big lake city contract, it hit me over the head. this is good. and then jeffries came out with another note where they said it didn't change their view. the reason, they're worried that alliant had to cut pricing in order to win the contract. and they're also concerned about declining u.s. presence in afghanistan and shrinking army head count. these are reasonable concerns. i think they make more sense if atk was trading $61 rather than $51.
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a lot of the worries are in the stock. it is really intriguing because after this occurred, 3m announced they are buying body armor on monday. i can see a larger defense play picking up alliant tech. it makes too much sense for this company to stay independent. i think it will be bought. alliant tech is too cheap to ignore now that major risk that had everybody worried about is a thing of the past. i think the guys at cowen are right. as much as we hope it's not the case, it's not like we're going to beat swords into plow shares with the tinder box in the middle east getting hotter, not colder since the arab spring began. pam in massachusetts? pam? >> jim, i'm a first time caller and long time viewer. my question is about boeing. i've been trading it and it's been trading and it's $7 to $9 for the last few months. my questions are, is it being
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affected by the labor dispute, a potential cut in the defense budget or just delays with the dream liner? do you see a catalyst near term to make it forge ahead? >> i would say that the research director of my charitable trust and i have gone over this boeing. we did it five times today. we do it two or three times every day. if i had hair, i would have pulled it out on this. i think it is the contract and the negotiations and also the fiscal cliff. i think when this company reports it's going to have an outstanding quarter. boy, it is a -- house of pain -- until we get there. dan in new york. dan? >> hi, jim. how you doing? >> not bad, thank you. how about you? >> very good. i'm a 31-year retired teacher of global studies and economics from the beautiful town of washingtonville in upstate new york. >> man, you got the life. >> i do. i do. and i have a question for you. it's about a defense stock that i've owned for a number of years, curtis wright. what do you feel the future of curtis wright will be if obama retains the presidency or if gop
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candidate mitt romney wins the position? >> i think they have enough that is not defense for it to carry through. i have to tell you something, this has been a historically cheap stock. i've always expected one day it would be snapped up. it never has. it's inexpensive so i'm not concerned about it. atk might be ready for takeoff. and tonight's analyst shootout, i'm agreeing with the bulls at cowen. more importantly, i'm saying stay tuned for the lightning round.
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it is time for the lightning round. rapid fire calls. are you ready skeedaddy? lightning round. we start with mark in illinois. mark? >> cramer, boo-yah. >> boo-yah, chief. >> what do you think about bp? >> take a pass, my friend. there are so many other better oil companies. i like statoil more than that. it's got growth without that kind of profile, so to speak. how about tony in indiana? tony? >> hey, jim.
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a big indiana university kelly school of business boo-yah. >> how much do we like kelly? go ahead. >> impact laboratories. ipxl in early august. where do you see it going from here? >> you know, you guys are so rigorous out there. i know that if i even try to comp this, you'll be all over me. i'm going to take a pass and do more work on it. tom in florida, please tom? >> jimmy, panhandle boo-yah to you. >> oh, man. great 98 boo-yah right back at you, including ft. walton beach. >> that's where we're at. >> i knew it! >> last week you talked about boardwalk pipeline and you said it was one of your favorites. now they did this secondary and diluted us a little bit. what are we going to do? >> i think we're fine. i think you should buy more boardwalk. it's one of the best in show. it's incredibly well run and i like it. i want to do brandon in north carolina. brandon? >> mr. cramer, boo-yah from
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research triangle park, north carolina. >> brain trust. brain trust. eric wiseman lives in north carolina now. he's pretty cool. what's up? >> caterpillar, cat. >> i need more data. it's too hard. it's like getting stuck in the $80, $90 range. arby in california? >> mr. cramer, i want to give you a big boo-yah from sunny san diego. >> well, good. maybe we can -- maybe someone can tell rivers he plays for my fantasy team and delivers. or call norv turner. what is the stock? >> the stock today is sirius satellite radio. four year high. b of a and merrill lynch put a $3.7 price on it. >> i thought that was wrong. i think liberty media could be able to cap your top here. i like sirius. i like mel karmazin. i do not like the way they just
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casually threw him under the m-106 which is a bus. i like the stock but i think it's capped. >> carol in new hampshire. >> hi, jim cramer. boo-yah. >> boo-yah. >> chicago bridge and iron? >> i think this is going to be a strong quarter. you know what? buy, buy, buy. i need to do more work. but it's got one nasty chart. let's go to ellie in california. >> hi, jim. boo-yah! >> boo-yah, ellie. >> i have a question about mlnx. >> we walked away it from. we had a really big gain. we didn't like the changes up top. there is a lot of other plays. we declared ourselves victorious and we moved on. i need to go to ken in california. ken? ken? yo-yo? ken may be no show. like molly no show in the movie "the gauntlet." let's go to charlotte in florida. charlotte?
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>> jim, the transaction between eaton and cooper industries? good or bad? >> that closes october 26th. that's when i believe immediately eaton will lift. that is a stock is a buy, buy, buy. justin in south carolina. how are you? >> i'm doing awesome, man. hey, my question today is about taiwan semiconductors. trades at symbol tsm. hit a new 52-week high today. and i held this since about 2008. i'm considering taking some profit. >> i suggest that justin, it will be justified to take some profits. all the semiconductors are down. this one is too high. i'm saying justify it and go. that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the "lightning round"! >> "the lightning round" is
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when you got a company that can't seem to pull its own weight, a real laggard that has been a serial disappointer, the buck stops with the ceo. that's why we love it on "mad money" when a loser ceo gets fired and replaced with somebody who seems to know what he's doing. how important is it to have a decent chief executive officer at the helm? take symantec. it has been a real dog for ages. i have disliked for as long as i can remember. even though cyber security is
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major, symantec simply not able to deliver. in fact, atn times it felt like this company couldn't get anything right. they spent nearly $3 billion in acquisitions. the company has barely been able to grow the revenues. you get good revenue growth. what's the point? but there are more systemic problems, too. symantec has a cost structure that is much more expensive than its peers. it is less targeted at specific markets. and it just doesn't have the scale to compete aggressively against the big tech companies that have security as a side light. as a result, it's been stuck in the mid single digits for years, trading sideways ever since the great recession while its peers have all gone much higher. however, even though all these problems the worst thing about symantec is something else entirely. what really made this stock uninvestable was the fact that the management seemed complacent and the board of
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directors is self satisfied with the clearly unsatisfactory status quo. the board has been resistant to overtures by investors who have taken large positions in the stock and had smart, serious plans to overhaul the company. the board didn't care. now symantec had been crushed earlier this year, fell from the highs of 19 in april to 13 and change by the end of july. the bulls had lost the will to live. but then symantec's board of directors did their darn jobs. they ousted the ceo and they replaced him with steve bennett, a board member who has taken over as permanent ceo. he was the ceo in another company. the company grew from $1 billion in sales to $2.7 billion in sales. he also knows how to increase margins. in the first five years as intuit's ceo, the margins expanded. bennett is the ceo that symantec needs.
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he is saying all the right things. in the first day on the job, he said he conducted 90 to 120 day review of the business. he wants to come in there and figure out what needs to be changed, throw out what doesn't work. bennett's words were music to the market's ears. in response, they went up in a straight line. shot from $13 to $17 within two weeks. $19 after six weeks. i've been waiting. even better, within a week of taking the ceo job, bennett disclosed he made a big insider purchase. he bought 89,300 shares. talk about a morale booster. bennett wouldn't be spending $1.4 billion worth of stock if he didn't think the company was going to turn around. he would spend $100,000 but not $1.4. now ever since the old ceo got the ax, we've been waiting for them to give us decent pull back so i could tell that you you should buy it without feeling like you're chasing it. in the last few weeks, that pull back has finally arrived. the stock is now trading $18
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which is why i'm releasing it from the sell block and tell that you symantec is indeed a buy. how much difference can one man make? hasn't symantec been a dog for years? it's not like replacing the ceo fixes all the company's problems overnight. but does it fix the biggest problem, complacency. it wasn't that it was a loser. it was a management system that said it was okay to be a loser. there are a lot of ways that they can make things better. the previous guy didn't have the will or desire to shake things up. steve bennett does. that makes all the difference. there are a ton of areas where bennett can take out costs and in part by changing the unwieldy compensation structure. he can focus on diversifying away from the personal computer. we know what that's doing. and if bennett really wants to unlock value, he can buy or spin off the enterprises businesses that the company doesn't get enough credit for. i like the breakup value here. symantec reports earnings on october 24th.
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i think you should build a position slowly, buying only into weakness. if it gets hit after the quarter, i would buy more. bottom line, when you see a new mover and shaker taking over the helm of a company that's been a real dog and then see a monster open market once the new ceo steps in, it's time to give the stock a second look. and that's why i'm releasing symantec from the sell block and telling that you the stock is now a buy thanks to the strength of the new ceo and the opportunities of a once complacent company that is now a walk in from a rip van winkle like slumber. "mad money" is back after the break.
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they called it the reality distortion field. that's what people who worked with steve jobs knew what happened when he made up whatever he wanted. you knew you were getting snowed by jobs when he said it was possible to come out with the impossible in a few weeks time
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or praised someone he knew he was going to fire that day. you knew when he hated someone, he may love him the next minute. it was just his way. he succeeded so often and was right so often, and had a crystal clear image and view of what he knew the customer wanted even if the customer didn't know herself, which was far more often the case than not. this morning on squawk on the street we interviewed meg whitman, ceo of hewlett-packard. and to crib from the one of the greatest debate lines in history, we knew steve jobs and meg whitman, you are no steve jobs. her reality was certainly distorted in my opinion. unlike jobs, there's no particular reason to believe that alas her distorted reality will ever come true. first, i found this morning's interview painful. maybe because debate talk was in the ether, maybe because whitman tried and failed to be governor of california.
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the ceo came up as a pol. i'm willing to answer any question about how she could save hewlett-packard from going away. she talked the cheerleader game about the 320,000 dedicated hewlett-packard employees which by my count may be 100,000 too many. she didn't answer how she can stop apple. she didn't make a real case for hardware models. she didn't explain how things could have gotten so awry or why the next generation is not enthralled with her products. she made no case for owning the stock and ruled out a wait until next year turn by saying it will be 2014 before we see any positive results from the company. i hope that reality isn't distorted, too. there is no reason for a company to exist just because it has a long and exalted history of existing. the rolls of tech companies are littered with castoffs that thought they had a right to exist, companies like wang, control data, nortel, they were storied, they were valuable. then they were irrelevant. gone. right now we're seeing whole companies go away, companies
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like research in motion, nokia which is apparently trying to sell the equivalent of the family jewels, the headquarters and eastman kodak which may soon not exist. i will go as far to say that hewlett-packard may be suffering through a kodak moment. why is that so hard to fathom? like hewlett-packard, kodak was one of the most important tech companies in the world, best cameras, printing technology, best pharmaceuticals and best chemicals. one by one it sold off its gems or failed to exploit them down to the closing of the innovative printer line. sound familiar? i had high hopes i might be able to see a whitman vision. reality got distorted but in a bad way, not a good one. i reiterate, under obama or under romney, there is no reason to own hewlett-packard. stay with cramer.
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>> well, here's a shocker. moody's ma g

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